Message Broker for Redemption of Digital Incentives

ABSTRACT

A message broker for redemption of digital incentives at a point-of-sale terminal for a commercial transaction that is able to communicate with a central database external to the point-of-sale terminal. The central database contains unique customer registration information, unique identifiers assigned to the unique customer registration information, business rules for redemption of digital incentives. Redemption of digital incentives at the point-of-sale terminal occurs at the time of purchase as follows: the customer&#39;s purchases are recorded in a basket list at the point-of-sale terminal; the customer presents their unique identifier; point-of-sale terminal initiates an instruction to process a transaction; the message broker routes the unique identifier and the basket list to the central database which applies the rules for redemption of digital incentives and returns validated applicable digital incentives to the message broker which forwards the validated digital incentives to the point-of-sale terminal for redemption; the point-of-sale terminal applies the validated digital incentives to the customer&#39;s purchase; and the message broker routes an acknowledgement message to the central database.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/179,964 filed on May 20, 2009, which is incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND

Manufacturers, retailers, and sometimes third party promoters oftenoffer discounts, incentives, and other price reductions to enticepotential customers to purchase their products. These price reductionsare often distributed on paper coupons that the customer must present atthe point-of-sale terminal to redeem the value of the price reduction.Typically the final retail point-of-sale terminal is reimbursed for thisprice reduction by sending the redeemed paper coupon back to theprovider that issued the paper coupon along with a record of thetransaction for validation. This validation is often done by hand andmay be conducted by a third party vendor who verifies that the papercoupon is valid, compares it to the record of the transaction, and thenapplies any relevant business rules. Not until the end of this tediousprocess does the retail point-of-sale terminal get reimbursed for theredeemed paper coupon. This is a time-consuming and expensive processthat is prone to fraud and human error. Paper coupons are relative easyto forge and the infrastructure required to process them is highly laborintensive.

There have been some attempts to provide price reductions in digitalform. Some deliver the incentives to the customer in digital format butrequire the customer to present a printed coupon at the point-of-salefor redemption of the incentive which does nothing to address thereimbursement processing costs. Other systems require hardwareconnections which are expensive and impractical to implement. Some othersystems require the use of mobile devices such as smart phones andpersonal digital assistants that store all of the customer'sinformation, These systems are prone to loss and also exclude a largesegment of the market that does not have such devices. What is presentedis message broker for redemption of digital incentives at apoint-of-sale terminal for a commercial transaction that does notrequire paper coupons, does not require any additional hardware forimplementation at the point-of-sale, and can digitally administerredemption to reduce, if not eliminate, fraud in the process.

SUMMARY

A message broker is presented for redemption of digital incentives at apoint-of-sale terminal for a commercial transaction. The message brokeris able to communicate with a central database external to thepoint-of-sale terminal. The central database contains unique customerregistration information and unique identifiers assigned to the uniquecustomer registration information. The central database also containsbusiness rules for redemption of digital incentives including at leastall of the attributes of an industry-standard barcode, plus additionalrules as required by specific application.

Redemption of digital incentives by a customer at the point-of-saleterminal occurs at the time of purchase as follows: the customer'spurchases are recorded in a basket list at the point-of-sale terminal;the customer presents their unique identifier; an instruction to processa transaction is initiated at the point-of-sale terminal; the messagebroker routes the unique identifier and the basket list to the centraldatabase; the central database applies the rules for redemption ofdigital incentives; the central database returns validated applicabledigital incentives to the message broker; the message broker forwardsthe validated digital incentives to the point-of-sale terminal forredemption; the point-of-sale terminal applies the validated digitalincentives to the customer's purchase; and the message broker routes anacknowledgement message to the central database confirming theapplication of the validated digital incentives.

The customer may be informed of a successful redemption of digitalincentives by SMS text message, e-mail, mail, telephone call, or on aprinted receipt from the point-of-sale terminal. The customer presentstheir unique identifier from any of a virtual smart card, a cellularphone, a magnetic strip on a swipe card, a bar code, biometricsinformation, a telephone number, an e-mail address, a pin number, anRFID tag, or an account number. The message point-of-sale terminal canbe retail cash registers, internet cheek-out web pages, broadcasttelevision signals, cable television signals, or cellular telephones.The message broker can also route information to the central databasethat includes time specific information, location specific information,order totals, other discounts, voided transactions, or UPCcharacteristics.

Those skilled in the art will realize that this invention is capable ofembodiments that are different from those shown and details of thedevices and methods can be changed in various manners without departingfrom the scope of this invention. Accordingly, the drawings anddescriptions are to be regarded as including such equivalent embodimentsas do not depart from the spirit and scope of this invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding and appreciation of this invention,and its many advantages, reference will be made to the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart depicting the initial authentication andregistration of a point-of-sale terminal and a payment device with thecentral server;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing initial registration of unique customerregistration information with the central server;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a digital incentive redemptiontransaction;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing the digital incentives redemption andreimbursement process;

FIG. 5. is a flow chart showing the message exchange between thepoint-of-sale terminal and the central server via the message broker;and

FIG. 6. is a flow chart that showing how the message broker controls themessage flow from the point-of-sale terminal to the central database andthe integration of the central database to other entities.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to the drawings, some of the reference numerals are used todesignate the same or corresponding parts through several of theembodiments and figures shown and described. Variations of correspondingparts in form or function that are depicted in the figures aredescribed. It will be understood that variations in the embodiments cangenerally be interchanged without deviating from the invention.

A big hurdle to successful implementation of a new technology is thestartup and installation cost. Systems that require large initialinvestment in hardware that is incompatible with existing systems arenot as easily adoptable as systems and methods that make use of existingequipment as much as possible. Typical retail environments, whether at agrocery store, a clothing store, or other brick and mortar retailoutlets, have point-of-sale terminals where customers take theirselections for purchase. These point-of-sale terminals are usuallyequipped with payment devices that allow the customer to use non-cashmethods of payment. These payment devices are usually connected or tothe point-of-sale terminal for exchanging customer ID information andpayment information. The point-of-sale terminal often is used toestablish secure connections to financial service providers to processpayment and/or credit for the customer's purchases, while the paymentdevice is simply used to collect the customer's information and pass itthrough to the point-of-sale terminal.

The same principle of a point-of-sale terminal and a payment device isalso seen in internet retail applications. Customer selections oninternet retail web sites are placed in “shopping carts” which act aspoint-of-sale terminals to aggregate and total the items to bepurchased. Before purchases are finalized, the method of payment isusually processed with a payment device software that performs the samefunction as the brick-and-mortar equivalents but does not include ahardware component.

As the point-of-sale terminals and the payment devices are common tomost retail establishments, the digital incentive issuance, redemption,and reimbursement system and method disclosed herein attempts to modifythese items as little as possible to minimize implementation costs andincrease participation. An example of a point-of-sale terminal thatcould be used in some of the embodiments disclosed herein is the IBM ACEPOS manufactured by International Business Machines Corp. ofPoughkeepsie, N.Y. Referring to FIG. 1, a central database 10 maintainsa record of the all of the digital incentives transactions that areprocessed by the system and method. These are discussed in more detailbelow. The central database 10 is accessible on the internet to allauthorized users. The central database 10 also maintains a record ofretail locations that participate in the digital incentive program. Forsecurity purposes, retailers wishing to participate in the digitalincentive program should ideally register authenticated existingpoint-of-sale terminals 12 with the central database 10 as presented inFIG. 1. For an additional layer of security, payment devices 14associated with each authenticated existing point-of-sale terminal 12can also be registered with the central database 10. These devicestypically have unique identifiable attributes associated with them, suchas serial numbers, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, asset numbers,identification codes, or other manufacture specific identificationinformation. The central database 10 maintains a record of theidentifiable attribute of each authenticated existing point-of-saleterminal 12 and any associated payment devices 14. The central database10 can be housed on a dedicated server but preferably cloud computingservices can be used to reduce startup and maintenance costs. Examplesof cloud computing service providers include Amazon Web Servicesprovided by Amazon Web Services LLC, Google App Services provided byGoogle, Inc., and Azure Services Platform provided by Microsoft Corp.

Payment devices 14 are typically able to maintain secure connections tothe internet. They are generally third party devices used for exchangingtransactional payment information between point-of-sale terminals andfinancial institutions. The payment devices 14 are typically sold toretailer to provide a secure communication gateway and therefore paymentdevices 14 typically employ sophisticated encryption and secure networkconnections because of the sensitive nature of the informationtransmitted over them. These payment devices 14 are generallyprogrammable with customizable software to enable retailers to tailorthe functionality of the payment devices 14 as needed.

A piece of software called a message broker 16 manages communicationsfrom the authenticated existing point-of-sale terminal 12 to the centraldatabase 10. The message broker 16 may be loaded onto the payment device14 or the point-of-sale terminal 12, but in any case is able to functionas described. The message broker 16 packages and routes communicationsfrom the payment device 14 and/or or the point-of-sale terminal 12through the retailer's communication mechanism 18 to the centraldatabase 10. There are a variety of payment devices 14 in common usethat can be programmed to include a message broker 16 as describedherein, including touch screen interfaces, magnetic card readers,infra-red scanners, pin pads, and other devices. An example of a paymentdevice 14 that can be used as a described herein is the 1000ES VeriFonePIN Terminal manufactured by VeriFone, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Theretailer's communication mechanism 18 may be a modem, a T-1 line, atelephone connection, a wireless communication system, or any othercommunication system that connects the message broker 16 to the centraldatabase 10.

Preferably, the central database 10 assigns a matching encryptedpublic/private key 20, 22 pair to each authenticated existingpoint-of-sale terminal 12. Any communications from the authenticatedexisting point-of-sale terminal 12 and any associated payment devices 14to the central database 10 will be encrypted and include the public key20. These messages can only be decrypted by the central database 10which has the matching private key 22. Incoming messages to the centraldatabase 10 are first screened by a firewall 24 to block malicioussoftware and then passed to an authentication service 26 that comparesthe public key 20 in the message with what is stored in the centraldatabase 10. The public key 20 matches the record of the location of theauthenticated existing point-of-sale terminal 12 and the payment device14 and if it passes, the central database 10 uses the private key 22 todecrypt the message for processing. The private key 22 is maintainedsolely on the central database 10. The message broker 16 includes thepublic key 20 in any transmission to the central database 10 forauthentication, tracking, and auditing purposes. This adds a layer ofsecurity to ensure that transactions are from authenticated andauthorized retailers. This reduces instances of fraud or theft.

A session token 28 is used to force the initial authentication andregistration to time out after a short interval of time. Each initialauthentication and registration process is assigned a session token 28which is granted after all the credentials are authenticated. In theevent of a security breach, the short life of the session token 28reduces the chances of unauthorized initial authentication andregistration from occurring. If an unauthorized person acquired asession token 28, unless they knew exactly what to do, whatauthentication credentials to use, and other specific informationimbedded in the transaction, the unauthorized person would only have afew seconds to do anything before the session token 28 expires.

Transactions and redemptions that are carried out over authenticatedpoint-of-sale terminals 12 and payment devices 14 may be catalogued andtracked on the central database 10 if required by the particularapplication.

It is important to note that the system and method is not dependent onany existing loyalty card based system. Other solutions in the marketplace simply integrate with existing loyalty systems like IBM's EME orNCR's Copient loyalty systems. This means that these solutions only workin grocery stores and only in stores that require customers to have aretail specific loyalty card. The invention disclosed herein allows anystore in any industry to participate in processing digital incentiveswhether the customer has a loyalty card or not.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting several possible methods by whichcustomers may begin to use the digital incentive system and methoddescribed herein. Customers can preferably register their participationin the digital incentive system and method by connecting to the centraldatabase 10 through any device that connects to the internet. This couldbe through a personal computer, a personal digital assistant, a mobiletelephone, a television, e-mail, or other internet-accessible device 30.Alternatively the customer can be registered with the central database10 through the retailer either by filling out an application form whichthe retailer will submit to the central database 10, through anauthenticated existing point-of-sale terminal 12, or through theretailer's internet web site 32. Regardless of how it is done, theunique customer registration information is stored in central database10 for each customer. The unique customer registration information caninclude the customer's name, mailing address, and contact information.For more targeted delivery of digital incentives, the central database10 can also query demographic information and shopping preferences.Additional functionality can be included to store a customer's shoppinglist with periodic reminders sent to the customer of staple purchases.The central database 10 can also be programmed to prompt the customer ifdigital incentives are available for products in their shopping lists oralternatives to products they typically purchase. Other functionalitiesare obvious to those of skill in the art and are intended to be coveredherein.

The central database 10 assigns a unique identifier to the uniquecustomer registration information so that the digital incentive usageand other account information and statistics and be tracked andprocessed. The unique identifier can be a randomly generated password orpin number, or it could be selected by the customer, or it could be thecustomer's phone number, address, or other unique attribute, or it couldincorporate biometrics such as retina scans or fingerprints. The uniqueidentifier could be stored on a virtual smart card, a cellular phone, amagnetic strip on a swipe card, or a bar code. It could also be enteredmanually by the customer. The unique identifier associates the customerwith their account in the central database 10. The customer needs tocarry no information as all of their account information is held in thecentral database 10.

Incentives providers 34 also have access to the central database 10.Incentives providers can be manufacturers, advertising agencies, serviceproviders, grocery stores, retail outlets, financial institutions, orothers that wish to provide digital incentives to customers registeredwith the central database 10. The incentives providers 34 supply thecentral database 10 with a listing of the incentives they wish to offeralong with the business rules and limitations under which the incentivesoperate. Examples of incentives include: two-for-one offers, specificpercentage or value discounts, etc. Since the business rules aremaintained and processed on the central database 10, the business rulesare not constrained by the limited attributes that exist on bar codes.The digital incentive system and method allows marketers to applybusiness rules that have never been available to them before. Bar codeshave restricted marketers to targeting by manufacturer code with alimited set of value codes. The digital incentive system and methodallows marketers to combine unlimited rules such as time elements,location specific rules, unlimited UPC combinations, any value,historical shopping patterns, and many others. Examples of businessrules and limitations include: limits on the number of items purchasedper customer, time limits on when the offer is valid, combinations ofitems that limit the incentive, geographic limitations by store,municipality, etc. These digital incentives are made available toqualifying customers. It is important to note that this invention is notdependent on any existing loyalty card based system. Other solutions inthe market place simply integrate with existing loyalty systems likeIBM's EME or NCR's Copient loyalty systems. This means that thesesolutions only work in grocery stores and only in stores that requirecustomers to have a retail specific loyalty card. This invention allowsany store in any industry to participate in processing digitalincentives whether the customer has a loyalty card or not.

While the assignment of digital incentives to the customer's accountcould be automatic, it is preferable from an advertising perspectivethat customers actually browse and select digital incentives that theywish to use. In this way customers can be exposed to new product offersand can be incentivized to purchase items they would otherwise not havepurchased.

The central database 10 can include functionality that permits thecustomer to search for digital incentives for specific items and thecentral database 10 will present the closest matches to the search andpossibly other related digital incentives. It can also include amatching feature such that a customer enters a shopping list of genericor branded items and the central database 10 will alert the customer toavailable digital incentives that fit the list. The customer can printthe shopping list or have the list sent or e-mailed to a personaldigital assistant, a cellular phone, or other device as a shopping aid.Additional functionality can be included such that a shopping list canbe sent to a retail outlet to have the selected items available for pickup by the customer or delivery to an address specified by the customer.Specific Internet links can also be provided to enable customers toredeem their digital incentives on-line or to find out more informationabout a particular digital incentive. Many other variations infunctionality will be obvious to those of skill in the art and suchvariations are intended to be covered herein.

Under this system and method, information about the incentives isprocessed in the central database 10 externally of the point-of-saleterminal 12. Therefore, as all of the information is processed in onecentral location are no issues with synchronization, timing, or havingto ensure that all nodes in the system are updated and accurate. Thesystem and method described herein avoids the situation in which eachretail location must have a copy of all of the possible incentives,business rules, customer information, etc. as here the central database10 stores all of that information regardless of the location of thepoint-of-sale terminal 12. Under this system and method, when a customershops, the customer's incentive account is available instantly at everylocation that has access to the central database 10. A customer makingselections of incentives automatically updates the central database 10with those selections and those incentives are available to be redeemedat all available stores in real time. So long as a connection isavailable to the central database 10, a customer should be able toaccess their selected incentives from any authenticated point-of-saleterminal 12.

FIG. 3 shows a flow chart of how digital incentives are redeemed when acustomer makes a purchase at a retail location that has one of thepreviously authenticated point-of-sale terminals 12, a payment device14, and the message broker 16 software. When the customer checks out tomake payment for their purchases, the customer provides their uniqueidentifier either personally, if the unique identifier is a pin number,a biometric, etc., or through a intermediary device if the uniqueidentifier is stored on a virtual smart card, a cellular phone, amagnetic strip on a swipe card, a bar code, biometrics information, atelephone number, an e-mail address, a pin number, an RFID tag, or anaccount number . . . , a list of items to be purchased, the customer'sunique identifier, the identifiable attributes of the authenticatedexisting point-of-sale terminal 12 and the payment device 14, and thepublic key 20 are compiled by the message broker 16 and transmitted tothe central database 10 through the firewall 24 preferably through asecure communication channel.

The authentication service 26 compares the public key 20 in the messagewith what is stored in its records. The authentication service 26 checksto see if the public key 20 matches the record of the location of theauthenticated existing point-of-sale terminal 12 and the payment device14 and if it passes, the central database 10 creates a session token 28to identify the transaction and establish a time limit on the processingof the digital incentives. The session token 28 is used to force adigital incentives redemption transaction to time out after a shortinterval of time. Each individual redemption process is assigned asession token 28 which is granted after all the credentials areauthenticated. In the event of a security breach, the short life of thesession token 28 reduces the chances of unauthorized redemptions fromoccurring, If an unauthorized person acquired a session token 28, unlessthey knew exactly what to do, what authentication credentials to use,what digital incentives to use, and other specific information imbeddedin the transaction, the unauthorized person would only have a fewseconds to do anything before the session token 28 expires.

The central database 10 uses the private key 22 to decrypt the messagefor processing. The central database 10 compares the list of items to bepurchased with the digital incentives previously selected by thecustomer. Applicable business rules are imposed and the session token 28is returned to the message broker 16 with the validated digitalincentives. The message broker 16 routes the session token 28 with thevalidated digital incentives to the authenticated existing point-of-saleterminal 12 via the payment device 14 for redemption. Redemptions aredisplayed on the transaction receipt from the authenticated existingpoint-of-sale terminal 12. The session token 28 is continuously checkedfor expiration and if the transaction is terminated if it cannot becompleted before the session token 28 expires. Optionally, aconfirmation of the redemption is sent back to the central database 10.The central database 10 records the details of the transaction andredemption of the digital incentives with the customer's account. Thecustomer can be sent a summary of the redemption of the digitalincentives by SMS text message, e-mail, mail, telephone call, printedreceipt from the authenticated existing point-of-sale terminals, or byany other appropriate notification.

On successful completion of the digital incentive redemption, thecentral database 10 processes the transaction for reimbursement. FIG. 4shows the reimbursement process in more detail. As can be bestunderstood by comparing FIGS. 3 and 4, when the central database 10receives a request to validate a customer and process digitalincentives, the central database 10 first authenticates 34 theauthenticated existing point-of-sale terminal 12, the payment device 14,and the customer unique identifier. The customer's list of items to bepurchased is compared 36 to the customer's account order history 38.Available digital incentives 40 are validated 42 against the customer'slist of items and the relevant business rules are applied 44. Theresults of this transaction can be recorded 46 for later auditingpurposes. The applicable digital incentives are processed 48 and theredemption can be recorded 50 for later auditing purposes. The validatedproceeded digital incentives are returned to the message broker 16 andthe customer is notified 52 by any appropriate method 54 as discussedabove.

After successful redemption of the digital incentives, the centraldatabase 10 processes reimbursements 56. This could be conducted in realtime as the digital incentives are reimbursed or it could be aggregatedat periodic intervals, after specified threshold values are redeemed, orotherwise as determined by the particular business model. Records of thereimbursements can be made 46 for later auditing purposes. Thereimbursement process 58 determines the cost of the digital incentivebased on the applicable business rules and records the amount of moneythat is owed to the redeemer of the digital incentive by the incentivesprovider. The incentives provider can also be charged a transaction fee.The total due is sent to the incentives provider's accounts receivable62. The reimbursement process 58 also accumulates any fees that are owedfor the issuance, redemption, and reimbursement transactions and thesefees are sent to accounts payable 62. The central database 10 can beconfigured to communicate directly with a financial institution toprocess payment for reimbursement of redeemed digital incentives.Preferably, all of the issuance, redemption, and reimbursementtransaction data is aggregated and collated 64. A data services layer 68can make this data available in real time and any billing or payablescan be electronically transmitted to the customers 68, retailers 70,and/or incentives providers 72 on any interval necessary. These portals68, 70, 72 have appropriate filters to limit the viewing of anysensitive information to the appropriate viewers.

As already discussed, the point-of-sale terminals that can beauthenticated to apply the systems and method disclosed herein are notlimited to retail cash registers and internet check-out web pages. Anydevice that can connect to the internet and communicate with the centraldatabase 10 can be used as well. For example cable and broadcasttelevision signals combined with internet communications can be used tolog a user into the central database 10 and process purchases through atelevision remote control. Other devices and combinations will beobvious to those of skill in the art and are intended to be coveredherein.

A summary of the basic processes of the message broker are illustratedin FIG. 5. When the point of sale terminal initiates an instruction toprocess a transaction, the message broker 16 collects the customercredentials and the basket information. The message broker 16 thenformats, encrypts, and compresses 74 a message that includes at leastthe customer credentials and the basket information. The message mayalso include security credentials for the point-of-sale terminal,identify the location of transaction, etc. as required for theparticular application. The message broker 16 then and transmits theinformation over the retailer's communication mechanism to the centraldatabase 10 for processing 76. The central database 10 confirms theinformation in the message from the message broker 16 to determine thatthe message originates from a valid source. If validated, then centraldatabase 10 decompresses and decrypts the customer credentials and thebasket information. The central database 10 determines if the customerexists in the database and if they exist, it checks for digitalincentives available to them. If digital incentives are available, thecentral database 10 compares the business rules of the particularincentive with the information in the basket. If the rules are met, thecentral database 10 formats a message 78 that includes a list ofredeemable offers for that customer for that transaction. The messagewould include instructions on fulfilling the business rules asapplicable. This message may be formatted, encrypted, and compressed, asrequired for the particular application and sent back to the messagebroker 16. The message broker 16 receives the message and, ifapplicable, decompresses and decrypts the message before processing theinstructions for redeeming the incentives 80. The message broker 16 willdetect the successful or unsuccessful redemption of the incentives andwill generate and format an acknowledgement message 82 to be returned tothe central database 10 so that the success or failure of theapplication of the incentives may be recorded 84. The message broker 16can amend to any message to the central database 10, any additionalinformation that is required by the particular application, includingtime specific information, location specific information, order totals,other discounts, voided transactions, returned items, and UPCcharacteristics.

As shown in FIG. 6, the environment in which the message broker 16interacts is much larger than is apparent to the customer. Notificationof successfully redeemed digital incentives may be provided to thecustomer at the point-of-sale in the form of receipt which may bedigital or paper. In addition, the central database 10 preserves arecord of the successful redemption which may be transmitted to theincentives providers 34, partner companies who provide market analysis86, and incentives clearing houses 88 that process payments forreimbursement. In addition the customer may be able to access an accountsummary or notifications may be sent directly to the customer throughwebsites 32 or internet accessible devices 30. As an additional back-upto the system, summary logs 90 may be communicated on a regular basisfrom the point-of-sale terminal 12 to the central database 10 and alsofrom the central database 10 to the clearing houses 88. This inventionhas been described with reference to several preferred embodiments. Manymodifications and alterations will occur to others upon reading andunderstanding the preceding specification. It is intended that theinvention be construed as including all such alterations andmodifications in so far as they come within the scope of the appendedclaims or the equivalents of these claims.

1. A message broker for redemption of digital incentives at apoint-of-sale terminal for a commercial transaction comprising: themessage broker able to communicate with a central database external tothe point-of-sale terminal, said central database containing uniquecustomer registration information and unique identifiers assigned tosaid unique customer registration information, with rules for redemptionof digital incentives including at least all of the attributes of anindustry-standard barcode, plus additional rules as required by specificapplication; redemption of digital incentives by a customer at saidpoint-of-sale terminal occurs at the time of purchase by: the customer'spurchases are recorded in a basket list at the point-of-sale terminal;the customer presents said unique identifier; an instruction to processa transaction is initiated at the point-of-sale terminal; said messagebroker routes said unique identifier and said basket list to saidcentral database; said central database applies said rules forredemption of digital incentives; said central database returnsvalidated applicable digital incentives to said message broker; and saidmessage broker forwards the validated digital incentives to saidpoint-of-sale location for redemption; said point-of-sale terminalapplies the validated digital incentives to the customer's purchase;said message broker routes an acknowledgement message to said centraldatabase confirming the application of the validated digital incentives.2. The message broker of claim 1 in which the customer is informed of asuccessful redemption of digital incentives by any from the groupconsisting of SMS text message, e-mail, mail, telephone call, andprinted receipt from said point-of-sale terminal.
 3. The system of claim1 in which the customer presents said unique identifier from any of thegroup consisting of a virtual smart card, a cellular phone, a magneticstrip on a swipe card, a bar code, biometrics information, a telephonenumber, an e-mail address, a pin number, an RFID tag, and an accountnumber.
 4. The message broker of claim 1 in which said point-of-saleterminal is any from the list consisting of retail cash registers,internet check-out web pages, broadcast television signals, and cabletelevision signals.
 5. The message broker of claim 1 in which saidmessage broker also routes information to said central database includeany from the list consisting of time specific information, locationspecific information, order totals, other discounts, voidedtransactions, returned items, and UPC characteristics.
 6. A method forredemption of digital incentives at a point-of-sale terminal for acommercial transaction using a message broker comprising: enabling themessage broker able to communicate with a central database external tothe point-of-sale terminal, the central database containing uniquecustomer registration information and unique identifiers assigned to theunique customer registration information, with rules for redemption ofdigital incentives including at least all of the attributes of anindustry-standard barcode, plus additional rules as required by specificapplication; redeeming digital incentives by the customer at saidpoint-of-sale terminal at the time of purchase by: recording thecustomer's purchases in a basket list at the point-of-sale terminal; thecustomer presenting the unique identifier; initiating an instruction toprocess a transaction at the point-of-sale terminal; routing the uniqueidentifier and the basket list to the central database with the messagebroker; applying the rules for redemption of digital incentives at thecentral database; the central database returning validated applicabledigital incentives to the message broker; the message broker forwardingthe validated digital incentives to the point-of-sale terminal forredemption; the point-of-sale terminal applying the validated digitalincentives to the customer's purchase; and the message broker routing anacknowledgement message to the central database confirming theapplication of the validated digital incentives.
 7. The method of claim6 in which the point-of-sale terminal is any from the list consisting ofretail cash registers, internet check-out web pages, broadcasttelevision signals, cable television signals, and cellular telephones.8. The method of claim 6 in which the customer is informed of asuccessful redemption of digital incentives by any from the groupconsisting of SMS text message, e-mail, mail, telephone call, andprinted receipt from said authenticated existing point-of-saleterminals.
 9. The method of claim 6 in which the customer presents theunique identifier from any of the group consisting of a virtual smartcard, a cellular phone, a magnetic strip on a swipe card, a bar code,biometrics information, a telephone number, an e-mail address, a pinnumber, an RFID tag, and an account number.
 10. The method of claim 6 inwhich the unique customer registration information includes encryptedaccess codes.
 11. The method of claim 6 in which all communications overthe internet are conducted over secure connections.
 12. The method ofclaim 6 in which the message broker also routes information to thecentral database including any from the list consisting of time specificinformation, location specific information, order totals, otherdiscounts, voided transactions, returned items, and UPC characteristics.